The biggest untold story of the Trump Era is the role reversal of America’s two major parties.
We’re used to seeing Democrats as the “liberal” party, and Republicans as “conservative.” But based on the stands taken by Republicans under Trump, that’s no longer the case.
Today, Democrats are the conservatives on individual rights. Democrats are the conservatives on national defense. They’re the conservatives on conservation, and on the role of government in our lives. That’s what enabled the Cheneys to endorse VP Harris.
As it was a century ago, it’s populism that made the switch possible. Populism isn’t an ideology. It’s a cry for help. More to the point, it’s special pleading, a demand that the concerns of one group override all others.
American populism was based, and is based, on the Plains states and the South. It’s a religious populism, built by ultra-orthodox religious groupings that were born in this country. The difference between the Bryan era and the Trump era lies in technology, in money, and in the willingness of the Supreme Court to rewrite the rulebook of church and state.
Populism is what caused the two parties to switch sides a century ago. Democrats rejected the KKK at their 1924 convention, nominating a nobody named John W. Davis after 103 ballots. Then, in 1928, came an honest to goodness Roman Catholic in Al Smith. These were steps, along with the Great Depression, allowing Franklin Roosevelt to run as a “progressive,” and eventually embrace what we now call liberalism.
It is this liberalism that today’s Populists have sworn to destroy, that and all the history that followed.
The Mortal Storm
Citizens United allowed churches to become political clubhouses. Their wealth is the biggest thumb on the scale of the coming election. The political stance taken by these churches is no different from those elsewhere. Obedience. Control. A Christian Iran, or better yet an Afghanistan. These are the true heirs of Osama bin Laden.
Contrast that with the “normie” stands of the Democrats. We acknowledge science, and climate change. We are capitalists. We’re for individual liberty. We’re for supporting Ukraine and our other allies. You can argue about that on the margins. How far will we walk with Israel, for example? But Democratic Party stands are not transactional. They’re firm.
The Category 5 hurricane that democracy is facing now took two generations to create. As I wrote over a month ago, it was born in the shards of the Nixon impeachment, and has already succeeded in overturning the Nixon precedent, that no one stands above the law. The union between the “Moral Majority” and the Federalist Society is complete, and everyone else following in its wake – including Donald Trump and Elon Musk – is just there for their personal interest.
I sincerely believe democracy will win. The non-religious among the Republicans, those who were in it over military and regulatory issues, are starting to walk away, as they see what’s really in store for them. I hope, and believe, this will become a rush over the next month.
But even if we survive, our democratic system will look like Asheville after Helene, or Tampa after Milton. The Trump Party will still be alive. Its Torquemada wing will remain vibrant.
Our legal structure will have to be rebuilt. Our Constitution may have to be amended. That task will remain long after November 5 has passed into history.
